March 22, 2023
What an uplifting way to start your Saturday! The first picture below, shared by Debbie, after she parked on the campus early on Saturday morning to volunteer. Neighbors began arriving in the early hours and they too witnessed the dawn of a new day. Sue began distributing numbers around 6:00 to keep the traffic from backing up onto Old Airport Road. Tom and Dino help us by assisting with registration and shopping with our Spanish-speaking neighbors. Ludmilla speaks several Eastern European languages and helps our neighbors from these countries. This week we welcomed ten new neighbors and 122 households representing 430 individuals.
On Monday, the Prayer Shawl Ministry met at the pantry. Several prayer shawls and prayer squares were collected to be blessed and distributed from the prayer room, the parish and the community. Tuesday evening, the Executive Board of the Henderson County Hunger Coalition met at the Pantry and new Board members toured the facility. Tuesday, Manna delivered 5,800 pounds of food. Volunteers were there ready, willing, and waiting to unload the pallets and place on the shelves. Tuesday afternoon, was a three-ladder day at the garden as the volunteers continued to construct the hoop house. Wednesday and Thursday were scheduled workdays too. Thursday afternoon, volunteers worked in the garden and Steve delivered a large order of food ordered from Sav-Mor. Friday the shelves were stocked for the Saturday distribution from 8:00-11:00.
Panera Bread donated bread and rolls this week. City Bakery donated loaves of bread. Other donated items were from Bright Farms-lettuce, Ingles and Bimbos bread, Wal-Mart and Big Lots, misc items, Flavor-First - tomatoes, and MilCo-milk. Friday, our volunteers stocked the shelves with purchased items from MANNA and Sav-Mor (canned goods, milk, and eggs). Produce this week included sweet potatoes, peppers, oranges, lettuce, apples, and yellow squash.
On behalf of the executive committee, thank you to our volunteers and our area churches, civic groups, local merchants, and families for all you do to feed our community helping to reduce food insecurity. We thank you for your food and monetary donations. We are able to feed our neighbors 3 and 1/2 days of food or 11 meals.
